Baladi News - Journals
Iran on Monday launched missile strikes on what it said were Sunni Islamic extremist hideouts in eastern Syria, a move it portrayed as retaliation for a deadly terrorist attack on an Iranian military parade last month.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps said it fired six medium-range missiles into Syria from bases in western Iran at 2 a.m. local time, striking east of the Euphrates River and killing and wounding several militants. It said its combat drones then targeted the sites.
A statement on the Guard’s website described those killed as “takfiri terrorists,” a term it often uses to refer to the Islamic State.
The strikes against the Islamic State on Monday, however, came even as Iran had blamed local Arab separatists for last month’s attack in the southwestern city of Ahvaz. At a military parade Sep. 22, gunmen killed at least two dozen people, including a 4-year-old boy. Iran identified the five perpetrators as residents of Ahvaz.
But both the Islamic State and a local separatist group claimed responsibility for the attack. Iran accused regional rivals Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates of supporting the local Arab nationalists, who have fought for autonomy from Iran’s mainly ethnic Persian population.
At least four of the missiles landed in the Hajin area of eastern Syria, where the Islamic State is still active, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The Revolutionary Guard said the missiles traveled some 350 miles from Iran’s Kermanshah province to their targets in Syria. Iran, however, commands a number of loyal proxy forces in Syria that are stationed nearby.
Iran’s show of strength Monday appeared to be more about sending a message to its adversaries — in the region and abroad — than targeting those responsible for the assault.
Source: The Washington Post